“Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine,” then-Senator Joe Biden declaimed in 2008, after being selected by then-Senator Barack Obama to be the junior partner on the Democratic ticket for the U.S. presidential election. “You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It’s a pretty hard experience. He’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.”

Obama’s choice of running mate may have perplexed millions of Americans at the time, but we soon discovered that these seemingly unlikely partners have two big things in common: privileged lives and the audacity to pretend otherwise.

Both men have enjoyed innumerable advantages, often at the expense of others. Both have acquired immense wealth, with little effort. And both have the gall to affect an identification with the working class, with whom they have little in common.

The very idea of either of these golden boys snickering at a political rival’s wealth is preposterous – yet, they both do it, with straight faces.

Patronizing though it was, Biden’s image of the kitchen table that poor folk sit around singing their poor-folk blues was contrived to show he’s one of us.

As if the table he sits at, or the food on it, looks anything like ours. As if he worries about paying bills. Good grief!

He and Madison County’s Ann Callis can share war stories.

That’s Ann Callis, the prominent attorney’s daughter who became a judge at 30 thanks to connections and family wealth, now seeking the office currently held by U.S. Representative Rodney Davis of the 13th Congressional District.

That’s Ann Callis, who faux-frets because “people are hurting” and false-promises to “do what’s right for the middle class.”

That’s Ann Callis, a key beneficiary of Joe Biden’s recent trip to Alton to raise funds-- for candidates just like him.